Recognising the fundamental right to express our views, free from repression, over 160 civil society organisations call on the international community, including the United Nations, multilateral and regional institutions as well as democratic governments committed to the freedom of expression, to take immediate steps to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for grave human rights violations, and not allow impunity to prevail. This includes convening a Special Session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) on the recent wave of arrests and attacks against journalists, human rights defenders and other dissenting voices in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi journalist Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi’s murder in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on 02 October is only one of many gross and systematic violations committed by the Saudi authorities inside and outside the country. As the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists approaches on 2 November, we strongly echo calls for an independent investigation into Khashoggi’s murder, in order to hold those responsible to account.

Political speech is not a crime: Urgent appeal to stop the trial of Sheikh Ali SalmanIFEX, 18 Jun 2018

NGOs call on Bahraini authorities to drop all charges and ensure the immediate and unconditional release of Sheikh Ali Salman, Secretary-General of Bahrain's largest political opposition society, al-Wefaq National Islamic Society.
We the undersigned call on Bahraini authorities to drop all charges and ensure the immediate and unconditional release of Sheikh Ali Salman, Secretary-General of Bahrain's largest political opposition society, al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, who has been serving a four-year prison sentence for charges in response to political speeches he delivered in 2014, and who is now facing a potential death sentence in a groundless new trial on politically motivated charges.
(…)Signed,
Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Bahrain Interfaith, Adil Soz - International Foundation for Protection of Freedom of Speech, Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC), Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), Bytes for All (B4A), Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI), Center for Media Studies & Peace Building (CEMESP), Danish Pen, Freedom Forum Independent Journalism Center (IJC), Global Human Rights Geneva, Index on Censorship, Initiative for Freedom of Expression - Turkey, Maharat Foundation, MARCH, Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Media Watch, MENA Monitoring Group, National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), No Peace Without Justice, Norwegian PEN, Pakistan Press Foundation, PEN American Center, PEN Canada, Salam for Democracy and Human Rights, Social Media Exchange (SMEX), South East Europe Media Organisation, Vigilance for Democracy and the Civic State, World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), Vivarta Limited

An alleged chemical weapons attack against civilians in Douma, Syria has been condemned widely by civil society. The attack is said to have killed at least 60 people and left over 1,000 injured.
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An open letter published this week, signed by 15 NGOs including Coalition members REDRESS, No Peace Without Justice, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), TRIAL International, Open Society Justice Initiative and Coalition parent organziation the World Federalist Movement, calls upon the EU and UN to ensure accountability for crimes committed during the conflict at the “Brussels II Conference” on the 24th April, and to prioritise overcoming the challenges in meeting humanitarian needs.

The Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices -Gamcotrap- and No Peace Without Justice last Wednesday celebrated the International Zero tolerance day onto end Female Genital Mutilation –FGM- on the theme “Accelerate Zero Tolerance to end FGM by 2030. Over the years, Gamcotrap has taken the lead in celebrating zero tolerance to end FGM in The Gambia working with all sectors across the country. The international day of zero tolerance on FGM is a global event adopted by the United Nations sub-commission on human rights.
Speaking at the event hosted at the Friendship hostel at the independence Stadium in Bakau, American Ambassador Patricia Aslup said as the day is celebrated, people must know that zero tolerance means exactly that zero tolerance is placed on an act of violence against women that neither has religious basis nor relevance in modern culture.
“We know that FMG/C is considered a rite of passage in communities and because of this, we know that it will not end simply by passing a law. FGM/C will not end until communities collectively and publicly advocate for zero tolerance and work together to end its practice.” Ambassador Aslup said the advancement of women and girls is essential to peace, prosperity, and security, noting that they remain committed in their efforts to combat all forms of gender-based violence, including FGM/C while renewing the call for zero tolerance to end the harmful procedure that affects women and girls in far too many places across the globe.
Musa Jallow from Gamcotrap said law is necessary but its effective implementation and enforcement and public awareness of the powers of the law is the most important.
He added that enforcing the law that prohibits FGM is critical to legitimise local advocacy and educational efforts, to strengthen those who seek to defy social pressures of tradition and reject FGM to protect its victims and to end this event.Niccolo Figa Talamanca from No Peace Without Justice said the liberation of women is very essential and the mission that brought Gamcotrap into the fight is the same mission that brought his organisation.

Female genital mutilation continues to hamper lives of women and girls. The US ambassador, Patricia Aslup said at least 200 million girls and women alive have under gone some form of FGM/C.
She said the act is a grave and lifelong harm, it has been proven to cause to the physical and mental health of women and girls. She highlighted that if the current trends continue, many more millions of girls are at risk of being subjected to the practice by 2030.
It is with this backdrop that GAMCOTRAP and its partners join the whole world to commemorate Zero tolerance to end female genital mutilation yesterday at the Friendship Hostel, in Bakau Stadium.
(...)Niccolo Figa-Talamanca, BanFGM Project Worldwide Secretary General of No Peace Without Justice said the duration to end female genital mutilation is been a while but gaining momentum. “A right is a right if it is protected by the law,” he said
He noted that the physical manifestation of women leaders in the struggle to end FGM cannot be estimated. He also calls for the enforcement of the law to protect women. He stated that collective measures are needed to protect the girl child, because it takes a lot of energy to protect women from harmful practices.

The Coalition for the International Criminal Court would like to share in expressing our profound sadness at the passing of Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni. “Cherif was truly one of the world’s greatest experts of international law and justice. He was a true champion of the International Criminal Court and long-time supporter of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court,” said William R. Pace, Coalition Convenor. Cherif Bassiouni was a founding member of both the prestigious Siracusa International Institute for Criminal Justice and Human Rights (ISISC) and DePaul’s International Human Rights Law Institute.
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In response to the news, many Coalition members expressed their sorrow and remembrances:
Richard Dicker of Human Rights Watch noted his “Many memories of Cherif–his dynamic…as the Chair of the Former Yugoslavia Commission of Experts [predecessor to the ICTY], the essential work he did through the Siracusa Institute on the Draft Statute of the ICC, his role in Rome as Chair of the Drafting Committee….his scholarly contributions…quite an amazing role and a remarkable person.”
“We are joining others in remembering and honoring Cherif Bassiouni — an extraordinary man who has made an incredible and unique contribution to this field, especially during the negotiations and the early work of the Tribunals,” said Brigid Inder, Executive Director of Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice. “He was a wonderful orator — intelligent, urbane, and inspiring. We were so lucky to have had him.”Niccolò Figà-Talamanca of No Peace Without Justice described him as “unfailingly considerate, elegant and generous of spirit…He's been a great promoter of international justice, with real depth on the issues, but also the flair to move things forward. Richard mentioned his crucial role in building political momentum for the ICTY. Then, in Rome he played his role masterfully, as Chair of a drafting committee that he purposefully designed to be in part a place to keep certain parts of the text moving at the right pace, so that the deals could be struck - even if somewhere else. A great mover and strong advocate on our side during the ratification campaign, you could really count on him to explain things clearly policymakers, and to make an impression.”

The liberation of Mosul from the Islamic State (IS) does not create an opportunity for most displaced Christians to return home, an Assyrian Christian in the United States advocating for the victims told Baptist Press (BP).
Rather, many displaced Christians see better prospects in establishing their lives in the Nineveh Plains northeast of Mosul, said Juliana Taimoorazy, founder of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council. Based in Glenview, Ill., the council advocates for persecuted Iraqi and Middle Eastern Christians in their homelands and in the U.S.
“The majority of Christians are not seeking to return to Mosul specifically. This is because they were betrayed by their own neighbors,” Taimoorazy told BP. (…) Taimoorazy said sources have reported as few as 10 Christian families were among residents who were unable to escape Mosul and remained under Islamic State rule when it established a so-called caliphate there in 2014. (…)
“Most have either been tortured or their family members have been killed,” Taimoorazy said. “A few have superficially converted to Islam by reciting the shahada [Muslim profession of faith] to remain alive, although in their hearts they remain Christian.”
IS displaced about 170,000 Christians inside Iraq, Taimoorazy estimates. Half of those were able to migrate to slums and refugee camps in cities such as Amman, Jordan, and in small villages in Turkey and surrounding areas of Beirut.
Still others were tortured or killed, said Taimoorazy, who herself was harassed daily during her childhood in Iran under the Islamic regime, she said, and was smuggled to the U.S. as a teenager.
“We don’t have accurate statistics as of now, but we do know there are several hundred Christian women who were sold into sex slavery from the Nineveh Plains and Mosul,” she said. “Many have been crucified on their doorsteps. Hundreds of women were raped in front of their husbands and later forced to witness the execution of their husbands.”
The Minority Rights Group International, a London-based organization advocating for Iraqi Christians and similarly situated minorities in more than 60 countries, released a study in June conducted in cooperation with the Institute for International Law and Human Rights, No Peace Without Justice and the Unrepresented Nations and People Organization, all non-governmental organizations.

East of Mosul, many of the lands liberated from ISIS stand empty. Driving through the Nineveh plains, traditional homelands of Iraq’s minority communities of Yezidis, Christians, Shabak and Turkmen, you pass one ghost town after another, peopled only by members of the armed militias known in Iraq as the Hashd al-Shaabi, or ‘popular mobilisation’.
Houses destroyed by ISIS vehicle bombs are juxtaposed with buildings flattened by international coalition air strikes. Inside the houses in many residential streets, there are holes smashed into the party walls to create the rat-runs used by insurgents to evade surveillance.
The battle to retake Mosul is already nearly eight months old and, as resistance on the city’s right bank has proved intense, civilian casualties have mounted rapidly. Yet many of the empty territories in Nineveh east of the city and in Sinjar to the west were first retaken months ago.
They join lands in Diyala, Kirkuk and Anbar where ISIS has been defeated but displaced people numbering in the millions have yet to return. To understand why is to appreciate the threats that now hang over the future of Iraq – threats that will not disappear when ISIS is defeated.
The Iraqi central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil are broadly in agreement that IDPs can only return once security and services are restored. They have a point. There is extensive destruction to essential infrastructure. When thousands of civilians first returned to Ramadi after it was retaken, there were dozens of reported serious casualties from booby-traps and other IEDs and explosive remnants of war.
But many displaced minority communities now believe that their return is being delayed for other reasons. Christians, Yezidis, Shabak and Turkmen all cite cases where IDPs and supplies have been stopped at checkpoints, as detailed in a new report published by four international NGOs, Minority Rights Group International, the International Institute for Law and Human Rights, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation and No Peace Without Justice. The fear is that land-grabbing is already underway.

Brussels (AINA) -- The President of the Assyrian Confederation of Europe (ACE), Attiya Gamri, voiced strong concerns on the treatment of Assyrians and Yazidis by Kurdish military and political groups in northern Iraq during a conference in the European parliament on June 6.
The Conference, titled Post-ISIS Nineveh: The European Response, was hosted by Ms. Ana Gomes and Mr. Elmar Brok, members of the European Parliament, organized by various entities, including the Institute for International Law and Human Rights (IILHR), the Multinational Development Policy Dialogue of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ), the Unrepresented Nations and People's Organization (UNPO), and Minority Rights Group International (MRG).
Several important questions still remain six months into the the military operation to retake Mosul from ISIS, with the most important being the issue of the political, social and economic conditions for the sustainable return of those who lost homes and livelihoods as a result of the conflict.
Speakers included Iraqi parliamentarians and civil society activists, MEPs, EU institutions and EU member states representatives. The president of the Assyrian Confederation of Europe asked EU-officials not to overlook the role of Kurdish political groups such as the peshmerga and the KDP political party of Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani in the difficulties facing Assyrians and Yazidis in the Nineveh Plain and Sinjar. "During my visits to the region Assyrians and Yazidis have whispered carefully in my ear of the oppression they face from Kurdish groups. I'm glad that as an European living in freedom I don't have to whisper and that I can be their voice in this chamber today", she said.
The peshmerga has been accused of ethnic cleansing, arbitrary arrests and a range of other atrocities against non Kurds in reports from Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and other human rights organisations. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom in its recent report on the Kurdish region paints a dark picture of the reality on the ground.

It’s President Rodrigo Duterte, not Vice President Leni Robredo, who is upsetting the international community for his inducement of extrajudicial killings, according to a United Nations affiliate organization to which Robredo sent a video message criticizing Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs.
Speaking for the first time about the firestorm sparked by Robredo’s message to the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs annual meeting in Vienna on March 16, David Borden, executive director of the UN-accredited Drug Reform Coordination Network, said the Vice President deserved no blame for shining a spotlight on Mr. Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.
In an e-mail correspondence with the Inquirer, Borden said it was Duterte himself who had diverted global attention to the Philippine human rights situation as a result of his strongman policy and rhetoric against drug pushers and users.
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The Inquirer sought Borden and the other leaders of UN-affiliated groups who participated in the Vienna forum for comment on the political fallout that followed Robredo’s message.
“I did not hear anything in the Vice President’s speech that sounded like a betrayal of the public trust,” said Alison Smith, legal counsel and director for the International Criminal Justice Program of the UN-affiliated No Peace Without Justice.
“To the contrary, she appeared to be acting in the best interests of the public, and of the country as a whole, in appealing for a response to the drug problem based on human rights and the rule of law,” said Smith, who also took part in the Vienna meeting.
In an e-mail to the Inquirer, she said she found Robredo’s message to be “clear and convincing,” while the other participants seemed to find the Vice President’s remarks “inspiring and measured.”
Smith said two main points emerged from the forum: “One is that the way to treat a drug problem is through treatment and rehabilitation. Reducing demand can go a long way to address supply and can also help former drug users become productive members of society.” “The other important point was a sense of fear that in a situation such as we face today with a global rise in populist and authoritarian or authoritarian-leaning leaders, those leaders might adopt a similarly violent approach to drug problems in their own countries,” she said.

On 22 February 2017, the judges of the North Gauteng (Pretoria) high court judges unanimously ruled that the South African government jumped the gun by notifying the UN of its intention to withdraw from the ICC without first obtaining parliamentary approval, and ordered President Zuma to revoke the 2016 notification.
“The absence of a (specific) provision in the Constitution for the executive to terminate any international agreement is confirmation of the fact that such power does not exist until Parliament legislates for it,” said Judge Phineas Mojapelo in delivering the unanimous judgment. He also called the withdrawal "hasty, irrational and unconstitutional." The judgment stems from an executive action by the South African government last October by which it notified the UN Secretary-General – the depositary of the Rome Statute, the ICC founding treaty – of its intention to withdraw from the ICC.A victory for rule of law says civil society
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“This is clearly a victory for the rule of law and a shining demonstration of the important role the judicial system has to play in ensuring the proper checks and balances are upheld”, saidAlison Smith, No Peace Without Justice International Criminal Justice Director. “Today’s decision gives victims a reprieve and edges South Africa back to the community of nations that together have decided that might is not right; that impunity for crimes under international law is a threat and an affront to all of humanity, requiring a global justice response when national systems are unwilling or unable to investigate and prosecute; and that those who bear the greatest responsibility for atrocities need to account for their crimes irrespective of their official capacity or diplomatic status.”
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“We hope today’s decision gives time for cooler heads in South Africa’s Government to prevail and decide not to present a withdrawal Bill to Parliament”, Smith added. “If that happens, however, we hope that South Africa’s Parliament will stand on the side of victims and the protection of human rights on which today’s South Africa was built. In the meanwhile, we urge all States Parties to continue to reiterate in no uncertain terms their commitment to the integrity and the principles underpinning the Rome ICC Statute and their absolute commitment to ensuring justice and redress for victims of the world’s worst crimes, wherever they may take place."

"Medicalisation is one of the biggest threats against the programme to eliminate FGM", the experts saidReuters / The Indian Express / All Africa, 07 Feb 2017

A growing trend for midwives and nurses to carry out female genital mutilation (FGM) is undermining global efforts to eradicate the internationally condemned practice, experts have warned. Morissanda Kouyate head of the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices called for courts to get tough on health workers convicted of carrying out FGM. He also urged professional medical and health associations to expel members who repeatedly perform FGM.
“Medicalisation is one of the biggest threats against the programme to eliminate FGM,” Kouyate told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Rome ahead of international FGM awareness day on Monday. He called for countries to revise their laws on FGM to make clear that health professionals convicted of offences should face the maximum sentences allowed under the legislation. An estimated 200 million girls and women worldwide have undergone FGM, which usually involves the partial or total removal of the female genitalia and can cause a host of serious health problems.
Speaking at a global conference on FGM in Rome last week, Kouyate said medicalisation was an unfortunate result of early efforts to tackle FGM, which had focussed on the health risks. The ancient ritual – practised in at least 27 African countries and parts of Asia and the Middle East – is usually carried out by traditional cutters, often using unsterilised blades or knives. In some cases, girls can bleed to death or die from infections. Later on, FGM can cause fatal childbirth complications.

It is one of our secret shames. But when the world observes International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation today, Masooma Ranalvi and her group of 50 Bohri women from across India will have it split wide open.
Ranalvi (50), a former Mumbaikar who now resides in Delhi, was the only Indian representative at the two-day BanFGM conference held in Rome last week. The conference, attended by nearly 30 countries, aimed at addressing current challenges that countries face in ending female genital mutilation (FGM).
Ranalvi tells mid-day she discussed the prevalence of the practice in India, locally known as khatna in the Bohri community. “Many didn’t believe that it happens here.” But there could have been no one better than her to convince them of it. For, she was ‘cut’ at the age of 7. “All of us were deceived into being cut. It was my grandmother who took me. The experience was horrific,” says Ranalvi, who founded Speak out on FGM comprising 50 women in 2014.

More than 20 human rights figures and organizations sent letter to the British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Boris Johnson, urging him to call on the Kingdom of Bahrain to release Nabeel Rajab.In the letter published on the Index on Censorship website, they stressed that "in light of recent developments in Bahrain, we write to raise our deep concern over the punitive trials of prominent human rights defender Nabeel Rajab, who is being prosecuted in three separate cases for exercising his right to freedom of expression."
"As Foreign Secretary you have re-committed your Office to counter the shrinking of civil society space and promote the work of human rights defenders. We therefore urge you to give effect to this commitment by calling for the release of Nabeel Rajab," they added.
"We strongly believe that the UK, following your and the Prime Minister's visit to Bahrain in December, and particularly now that the UK has regained a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, should review its current policy on the human rights situation in Bahrain, publicly condemn regressive measures and call for the release of Nabeel Rajab and others detained solely for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression such as Sheikh Ali Salman, the Secretary General of al-Wefaq National Islamic Society," the HR groups further noted.
They went on to say that "the UK's significant historical, economic, security and political ties with Bahrain incur a responsibility to acknowledge and criticise negative human rights developments within the country. The UK's voice is strongly heard in Bahrain, and we urge you to act publicly and promptly in support of Nabeel Rajab's human rights work and call for his release."
The human rights figures and organizations concluded their letter by requesting a meeting with the FCO to discuss their human rights concerns in Bahrain and Nabeel Rajab's case and hear the FCO's views on his case and what the UK government can do to uphold its commitment to reverse the shrinking civil society space in Bahrain.
The letter was signed by the following:
Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), Amnesty International UK, ARTICLE 19, Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), English PEN, European Centre For Democracy and Human Rights (ECDHR), FIDH, under the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), Index on Censorship, Lawyer's Rights Watch Canada (LRWC), No Peace Without Justice, PEN International, Rafto Foundation, Reporters Without Borders, The Bahrain Press Association, the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), under the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders; Individuals: Clive Stafford Smith (OBE), director of Reprieve, Professor Damian McCormack.